When I first Came to New York, by Katiya Kuryakin aged 7 12
by lilidelafield
Summary: My Teacher, Miss Borrowdale wants me to write down all about when I first came here to New York to be with my Uncle Illya. So I am.


**A Little Girl's Essay**

 _WHEN I FIRST CAME TO NEW YORK by Katiya Kuryakin. Age 7 1/2_

Miss Borrowdale wants me to write about how I first came here to New York.

I remember when Uncle Dimitry and Pyotr Molovitski first brought me to my Uncle Illya in America, I had never seen anywhere like it before.

We got on a plane first of all. That was scary, especially when it left the ground. I asked Uncle Dimitry how did they get such a big and heavy plane off the ground and get it above the clouds? Uncle just smiled and shrugged and said he didn't know either. I remember I kept staring at the clouds below us, thinking it looked like the winter snow at home. Uncle said No! He said if I were to get out of the plane and try to walk on it, I would fall through it all the way to the ground.

When we landed at the big airport in America, in New York, I was happy that the plane got back to the ground safely. I was a bit worried that it might fall through the clouds too, but we seemed to go round and round in circles until finally we were coming in and landing.

Pyotr is a friend of Uncle Illya and he works in Moskva…Moscow. He does the same job in Moscow that Uncle Illya does in New York. That is why I am not allowed to live with him. He is away a lot, helping people in lots of other places. I live with Uncle Wint and Aunty Ce on a farm in New Jersey. Uncle Wint is the big brother of Uncle Illya's best friend Napoleon Solo, and his little girl Polly is my best friend. She even shares her bedroom with me.

When we got out of the taxi in Manhattan, I felt like I was in the middle of a sort of forest, but the trees were grey and concrete and not wood. I looked up and all I could see were the tall buildings reaching up and up and up into the sky. The tops of some of them were in the clouds. It made me feel like I was as tiny as an ant, and I had to hold Uncle Dimitry's hand really hard. I was scared that if I let go I would get lost.

When we first came to New York, Uncle Illya was sick. Some bad people had poisoned him and tried to poison everyone else, and so the UNCLE office was all locked up and we weren't allowed in. Nobody inside were allowed out either. When I found out my Uncle was sick and I was not allowed to see him I was even more scared then. I was scared he would die. We had to stay in a hotel for two nights before the doors were unlocked and we were allowed inside, and I was allowed to see my Uncle.

The hotel was nice. I had a room to myself and it had a big window that looked out across the city. It was really pretty at night with all the lights, but I was too scared to look at it much. I just wanted to see my Uncle.

Uncle Illya did get well in the end. He looks really skinny but he is really strong and really clever. He has lots of scars on his back where people have tried to hurt him and kill him but he always beats them in the end and locks them up.

I wanted to live with him for always, but he is not allowed to look after me and do his job. He could leave his job and look after me instead, but he would have no money. That's why I have to live with Mister and Misses Solo and Polly Solo, and they are nice to me. Uncle Illya adopted me, so that he really and truly is my Papa now, and he comes to see me as often as he can, and when he has a holiday from work, he comes to live here with me or I go to stay with him. Next week Papa and Uncle Napoleon want to take me and Polly camping. That will be fun.

Secretly I would rather just go camping on my own with papa. Whenever I go somewhere with Papa, Polly wants to come too, and sometimes papa says yes! When I complained to Polly about it, she told me that as she shares her mom and dad with me, I should be willing to share my papa with her sometimes. I asked Aunty Ce about it, and she said that she understood that I missed my Papa, but that it was always a good thing to learn to share. And sharing could sometimes mean people. So I will share my papa with Polly. I have more I could write, but Miss Borrowdale is telling us to stop now so I will.

THE END

 _This story is number 4 in my KATIYA series, based on characters and events from two of my longer stories (Lake of Tears Affair and Code Red Affair)_


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